Easter is a joyful season which lasts for 50 days of our liturgical calendar. While it may be challenging to maintain a sense of celebration that long, you do have help! The warming spring weather and resultant greening of our yards and neighborhoods often contribute to this sense of joy. As your preschoolers are reveling in the spring time, help them connect God’s gift of nature to them.
On a sunny day, go outside with a beautiful picture book about creation. (Two older but still excellent books are “The Story of Creation” by Jane Ray, which is also included in a newer book called “Let There Be Light,” and “The Creation” by poet James Weldon Johnson.) Read the story and then look around. Have children start looking around and naming things they can see, hear or smell that are part of God’s creation.
If you plant seeds in cups or in the ground, talk about the gift of seeds from God. In digging in the soil, if you find bugs or worms, talk about God creating even these tiny creatures that have important work to do in the world.
Watch clouds. Feel the wind on your faces. Take a walk and search for trees and bushes that are budding. Look for ants. Compare textures of tree barks. And always refer back to these things as God’s gifts.
And back inside, place a statue of Jesus on the table and remind children that God’s greatest gift to us was Jesus.